A sign of getting back to normal, low-cost airlines Wizz Air and Bulgaria Air start to fly to Budapest and Burgas in July and August to St. Petersburg airport Pulkovo. It’s not just about getting flights to schedule again, it’s (at last) a touristic thing — ordinary travelers have a right to come here and vice versa.
Wizz Air resumes flights between St. Petersburg and Budapest on August 14 twice a week, on Tuesday and Saturday. Russian travelers (of all kinds, not only those traveling for special purposes as it had been before) have a right to enter Hungary provided they are fully vaccinated, no matter which vaccine.
The fare to St. Petersburg starts from 110 euro with cabin luggage included.
In 2019, Wizz Air served 82,000 passengers on its St. Petersburg flights.
There are also two flights to Moscow from Hungary, to Sheremetyevo airport (Aeroflot Airlines) and Vnukovo (Wizz Air).
Bulgaria Air started flights to St. Petersburg from Sofia on July 30. Like Wizz Air, it flies twice a week, on Friday and Sunday (as of August 8).
In 2019, Bulgaria Air served 16,000 passengers on the routes between St. Petersburg and Bulgarian cities.
Earlier this year, a few foreign air companies got back to Pulkovo, including Qatar Airlines performing flights to Doha.
Pulkovo airport lost almost half of its traffic in 2020 year-on-year due to the pandemic Covid-2019, having just 11 million passengers (equal to 2012) instead of the record of 19.6 million in 2019.
With opened borders, the airport would have reached 14.3 million in 2021, the company said late last year. Well, with 5.571 million in January — May, nearly up 50 percent year-on-year, it looks quite reachable even with limited skies.